1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for monitoring computer use and, more particularly, a system for collecting, logging, and analyzing preselected operations in a personal computer and reporting use trends.
2. Description of the Related Technology
The popularity of personal computers has exploded in the past decade. Each year more and more people have used more and more personal computers in more and more ways. This raped expansion has resulted in an astronomical increase in the amount of money spent on computers, computer related services, computer software, computer peripherals and electronic information and information services. In just the past few years, on-line services such as CompuServe, Prodigy, and America On-Line have gone from virtual obscurity to household words. Our children learn to surf the "net" before they can ride bicycles. Heretofore, there has been no effective reliable mechanism to measure computer usage on a local or broad basis.
Organizations which sell any computer related products or services or which conduct any marketing activity in any electronic format will have an intense need to measure use of computer related resources and dissemination of electronic information. In much the same fashion that television advertisers rely on television ratings and viewer demographics to evaluate television marketing, "electronic" advertisers and sellers and producers of computer related products and services will need to evaluate information on computer use and "on-line ratings."